Dear Sharon,

Thank you for reaching out to the UVM Extension Master Gardener Program with your question. I can see where our unusually warm winter may cause confusion as to the appropriate time to prune your apple and pear trees. Fruit trees, with the exception of peach trees, should be pruned in late winter or early spring before growth begins and after the risk for severe cold weather has passed. Therefore now is the perfect time to prune your apple and pear trees. The warm weather could cause early growth and you want to prune before growth begins. Pruning is an important aspect of caring for your fruit trees but pruning can lessen the winter hardiness of the tree so pruning too early in the winter can make the tree susceptible to winter injury if we experience severely cold temperatures after the trees have been pruned. Although the weather can be unpredictable, hopefully we will not experience any severely low temperatures in the next month. The good news is that the weather is predicted to be mild for the next 10 days. It can take about 2 weeks for a tree that has been pruned to regain its cold hardiness so if you prune now your trees should be good even if we get a bit of a cold snap after a couple of weeks. One benefit of our unusually warm temperatures is that it will be much more pleasant to be out in the yard pruning your trees when it is 40 + degrees!

It sounds like you are not new to growing fruit trees but I have included some links to articles on apple and pear trees that discuss pruning goals for trees of different ages.

https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/Extension-Community-Horticulture/UMASSpruningfruittrees.pdf

https://extension.psu.edu/pruning-apples-and-pears-in-home-fruit-plantings

https://extension.umaine.edu/fruit/growing-fruit-trees-in-maine/pruning/

https://extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-apples#general-pruning-guidelines-264210

https://extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-pears#pruning-668311